Daniel
Greenawalt
Dr.
Mortimore-Smith
WIFYS
2017 9:00am
20
November 2017
A Nation of Cannabis
Going home after a long day pf work,
marijuana is sitting in a homeowner’s cabinet waiting to a stressful day. Only
people who live in the seven of the states of America, which legalized it for
reactional use can do this peaceful. Marijuana is being shown as a drug that will
lead to more serious threats in their lives than what actually happens. However,
there is a plus side to this industry and more and more nations are starting to
realize the benefits legalization of cannabis and it is only a matter of time
before the rest of the forty-three states learn to appreciate the benefits that
come from cannabis. Cannabis, a dry herb is being used to criminalize people
that do not deserve the police harassment when they are caught; therefore,
marijuana should be legalized for recreational use in all fifty states.
The cannabis industry is thriving as
it is now, but it can change into more income if the states would all band
together to legalize pot instead of one by one. A reporter in the article “Nip It In the Bud” said that:
The marijuana plant--sold at wholesale for around
$6,000 per pound. By November 2016, the Cannabis Benchmarks Spot Price Index, a
commodities index for the American market, had fallen to $1,400 per pound.
Aphria, a Canadian producer, reports production costs of $400 to $700 per pound
in U.S. dollars at current exchange rates. (Caulkins)
Prices
would drop in stores; people will be in more demand, which generates money and
can boost the economy. President Trump is not helping the passing either. He is
letting the states choose if they want marijuana legalized for recreational
use. If all the states legalized it, it produces new taxes on the object which
are projected to bring in more revenue than tobacco does. The highest tobacco
tax in America is $4.35 per pack of cigarettes, weighing twenty grams; if pot
was the case putting $5 a gram, it creates $100 compared to the cigarettes. (Cauklin)
Some people in the United States are
nervous about decriminalizing cannabis because they believe it may lead to more
abuse of the drug. Lower prices will allow citizens to put all their money into
buying pot, but the Dutch are showing results that prove this theory wrong. The
policy for selling became stricter regarding who can sell, how much they can
sell, and to whom they can sell to. The Dutch policies took out the street
deals by allowing coffee shops the ability to sell cannabis products. Allowing
the coffee shops to run the stores it keeps a monitor on all the drug users, in
essence the people who are smoking cannabis are being watched closer than
non-smokers. In the article “Going Dutch”
it states, “President Lyndon Johnson once famously said of FBI Director J. Edgar
Hoover, ‘better to have him inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent
pissing in” (Reinarman). Johnson’s statement is basically telling the people
that the United States is going to keep the citizens that associate with
marijuana out and take care of the crimes case by case.
Another argument, is the fear of
driving on the roads, raised another concern to all the states that are in the
process of decriminalizing marijuana. Recent studies show that this is not true,
and the fatality rate is not changing after Washington and Colorado were
compared to eight states that do not have cannabis decriminalized for any use. “The
difference-in-differences coefficient we observed, 0.2 fatalities per billion vehicle
miles traveled, would equate to approximately 77 excess crash fatalities (of 2890
total) over nearly 38 million-person years of exposure in the 3 years since
legalization” (Aydelotte). These scientists declare the evidence they have
received in the three years post-passing recreational marijuana use; there is
not a sever change in deaths from motor vehicle accidents due to marijuana use.
Decriminalizing cannabis, will
determine what our crime rate really is for kids under the age of eighteen. In
California, the law has been changed from giving a misdemeanor to minors to
giving them infractions if they are caught with under an ounce of marijuana or
twenty-eight grams. A misdemeanor for a minor is usually a small fine with a
slap on the hand, but to an adult, it could mean a larger fine plus ten days in
jail. An infraction is less of a punishment usually just a ticket with no jail
time or a larger fine. “After the new pot law went into effect in January 2011,
simple marijuana possession arrests of California juveniles fell from 14,991 in
2010 to 5,831 in 2011, a 61 percent difference” (Ferriss). The last time it was
under 9,000 incidents was between 1954 when the survey started and 1980 after
it finally broke 10,000. Mike Males, sociologist who studies myths created by
others believes that most of the new infractions on these kids are from getting
caught in school rather than out in a pubic area; he is still building research
behind this theory. Going along with Male’s theory he also believes that
sending a child to a detention center does not help him or her, but it weakens
them. Kids are thought to be more persuaded when they are going in to the
criminal life instead of learning from their actions.
Furthermore, innocent people are
being harassed for using a dry herb that they are only using to relieve stress
from their body, not to abuse it. Our soldiers, who sacrificed their lives to
protect this country, are not allowed to use it unless they are in a legal
state; all they want is relief from their past. Reinarman says, in his article,
“U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of a 75-year-old disabled
veteran serving a mandatory sentence of life without parole for growing two
pounds of cannabis for his own medical use.” Citizens like him is an example of
most people being arrested with small amounts of pot on them and the officers
arresting for it. An article done by Marijuana
Policy Report put out a statement in 2011 that said: “So how
many of those 853,000 arrests were for sale or manufacture of marijuana? The
answer is just over 103,000. That means that more than 750,000 people were
arrested last year for simple possession!" The opposition thinks that this
a positive thing for our country and not a downfall. In 2012, half the people
in prison were there for drugs, and more than half of that number is because it
was a marijuana possession charge.
Lastly, cannabis is being falsely accused of being harmful, but
the true culprit to the U.S. addiction is tobacco and cigarettes. During the
1950s, tobacco was used by half the population. User of these items lead to
them getting lung, mouth, or lip cancer. While determining the laws for
marijuana, Congress did not realize all the benefits that come out of smoking
cannabis. Tobacco and pot are similar in many ways: the growers of both
industry throughout the years learned how to add potency to their products
causing more addiction problems. Marijuana would be the better choice for a
user because it provides more to the body like the reverse effects of what
tobacco smoke has done to their lungs, or helps prevent glaucoma. The result of
smoking cigarettes is much different. Inhaling cigarettes causes shortness of
breath; yellow skin, nails, and teeth; bronchitis, and cancer!
Decriminalizing marijuana would
affect our country in countless ways throughout the whole economy for the
better. The world that is giving us something good for the body, a natural herb,
which that is given a bad rap from false accusations. Innocent victims are put
in jail every day for enjoying something they like to do in peace and relaxation
in their own home. If the nation came together for this substance, it will
create another, boost like the cigarette tax did when it was put up to six
seven dollars in certain states. The best way for the decriminalization for the
use of pot is to protest together and prove that it is not a drug, rather, a
plant that gives one a good feeling.
Work Cited
Aydelotte, Jayson D., et al. "Crash
Fatality Rates After Recreational Marijuana Legalization in Washington and
Colorado." American Journal of
Public Health, vol. 107, no. 8, Aug. 2017, pp. 1329-1331. EBSCOhost.
Caulkins, Jon. "Nip It in the
Bud." Washington Monthly, vol.
49, no. 1/2, Jan/Feb2017, pp. 10-1. EBSCOhost.
Ferriss, Susan. “Marijuana
Decriminalization Drops Youth Crime Rates by Stunning 20% in One Year.”
Alternet, The Center for Public Integrity, 26 Nov. 2012, Web.
Project, Marijuana Policy. “FBI: 750,000
People Arrested for Simple Marijuana Possession. And For What?” MPP Blog, 20
Sept. 2011, Web.
Reinarman, Craig. "Going Dutch."
Criminology & Public Policy, vol.
15, no. 3, Aug. 2016, pp. 885-895. EBSCOhost.
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